The Hunger Free Summer Food Fight

You can make a difference for a hungry child this summer!

Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan invites you to participate in the 20th Annual Hunger Free Summer Food Fight from July 21 - August 1, 2014. The Food Fight is a contest between businesses and organizations to collect food and dollars to help feed hungry children. Over the past 20 years big hearted metro Detroiters have competed and raised over 500,000 days of food! We hope to make 2014 the best year yet.

Any type or business or organization can participate. Companies are grouped by number of employees and compete against others in their “weight category”. The 2013 category winners were:Fifth Third Bank (750+ employees), Plex Systems(250+ employees), Rehmann (100+ employees), Michigan Design Center (<100 employees), George Washington Carver Academy (2013 New Participant Award) and Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Special Recognition, Hunger Free Summer Matching Donor). See below for a complete list of participants - they are all winners!

Left Photo: Gleaners' Bridget Green stops by Detroit Everest to pick up their HFS Food Fight donations.Right photo: A few guys from Enterprise Rent-A-Car dropped off their donations to Gleaners' Detroit Distribution Center.

“The participants were all very driven by the cause – they wanted to extend as much support as they could to hungry families. Every dollar donated was matched by Hunger Free Summer partners, so people knew their donations would go twice as far,” said Cara Rayner, Gleaners’ Food Fight coordinator. “And people really get into the Food Fight theme - it encourages them to have fun with their food drive and get creative. A little friendly competition always helps too!”

This annual food drive which began in the City of Troy has expanded through Oakland County and more recently into Wayne and Macomb Counties. We hope we can count on your participation to make the 2014 Food Fight the most successful one ever! New this year, we will be inviting all participating teams to our main Distribution Center in Detroit in mid-July. More information to come.

To participate, simply fill out the registration form. We will provide you with collection boxes for food, collection tins for monetary donations, and a virtual food drive page for secure online donations. We have customizable posters and flyers for you to download and use to promote the food drive with your employees, customers and others. Once the drive is over, Gleaners will pick up the food from your location.

For more information, contact Cara Rayner at crayner@gcfb.org or 866-GLEANER (453-2637), ext. 406.